Thoughts For Bharat

This is the place where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life. He was assassinated here on 30th January 1948 when he was on his way to attend his daily evening prayers. The place itself has been beautifully kept almost in the same condition as it was during the time Mahatma Gandhi stayed here. I would say this place can be divided into 3 sections.  The first section is the place on the lawns where he was shot. The second is the museum on the ground floor of the building , which covers elaborate details about his life in pictures and texts displayed on the walls. This section also has a small library as well as a Film room which shows 2 hour film daily from 1030-1230 and 1430-1630. I loved the small room which houses pictures and details on the last 48 hours of his life. You then move to Mahatma Gandhi's room and some of his daily use items are on display. The third and even more elaborate section is on the first floor which is the audio visual section. This section has...

20 days on. Chinese are officially inside India [Chinese troops are 20km inside Indian territory in Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector in eastern Ladakh] Indian government is mum. Army is holding flag meetings with the Chinese Army without any results and our foreign ministry's visit to China now looks dicey. Why is he going at all? Shouldn't we be putting this issue on the block as priority one?Where is it all headed ? Only God knows for sure because our government looks more clueless each passing day. Beautiful Ladakh As an Indian, I don't wish for an all out war, teach the enemy a lesson kind of reaction, but I am not exactly feeling proud at the way things are being handled. Hardly missed is the fact that we are overly bending ourselves trying to please the Chinese. Why are we doing it? I am hoping our government knows what it is doing and doesn't end up ceding a big chunk of Indian Territory to the Chinese which ultimately becomes a 'disputed territory' ...

Just came back from Mathura - Vrindavan darshan. If I had to sum up my experience in two words, I would say heavenly as well as chaotic ! The very fact that you are entering a holy land, a place where Lord Krishna once lived, creates an unmatched aura about the whole setting. The local people, temples, the Yamuna river, the trees, Cows and even the sand start looking as if something is different about them. Any where you travel you hear chants of Radhe - Radhe, Krishna - Krishna all day long  (Even the rickshaw pullers say Radhe-Radhe in a pleasing way to request way)! The Lord is around you, somewhere! Krishna - Balram with Yashoda On the other side is the place itself, which is chaotic no doubt. Being a popular religious place, it is expected to be crowded and it is. By evenings, there are people all around and everybody wants to catch a glimpse of the Lord, be ready to be pushed and shoved around. But to me, even this chaos looked part of a divine design. To test the res...

Am Quoting an English translation of a Tamil poem composed some 2000 years ago by Avvaiyar "It is rare to be born as a human being, It is still rarer to be born without any deformity. Even if you are born without any deformity, It is rare to acquire knowledge and education. Even if one could acquire knowledge and education, It is still rare to offer service to the mankind and contemplate on the higher self. If one leads such a selfless divine life, The gates of heaven open to greet such an evolved soul." I Read this poem in Dr. Abdul Kalam's book Ignited Minds. It took a while to absorb the import of this poem but later two thoughts built up inside me. I am sharing them below: One that India had a thinker/poet of such high capacity as far back as 2000 years ago [Did some research on net to find about Avvaiyars (Tamil: ஔவையார் ). It means "respectable women" and is a  title of more than one poet active during various times of Tamil literature]. Ha...